I have seen a few post's asking about refinishing Bakelite. I have done a few pistol grips and a set of handguards two different ways. I have done them with the wipe on poly and they came out ok. I also did a set with Automotive grade Urethane Clear Coat. On the ones I cleared I used some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper to smooth them out and they came out pretty nice. These are some really old pic's but you can kinda see the results. I will be doing some pistol grips here in the next few days I'll post some more pics. I was checking out this thread because I used it last year to refinish some AK stock's and they turned out nice and I am currently in the middle of refinishing 3 more AK stock set's and I needed to brush up on the process! Thanks again Aimsmall for the write up.

ETA: sandblasting is not recommended. I wasted a pistol grip trying it out. Maybe my blaster was running real good that day but I won't be doing that again.